There’s no such thing as a perfect world in the field of online gambling. You have the big, established names that have the panache to attract the biggest names, the up-and-comers with high potential, and the ambitious bottom dwellers that try to shake up the market. Their bonus policies and creative approaches try to bring the brand name to the forefront of a popularity context.
Unfortunately, the underworld of this industry includes a significant number of operating entities that pose as legitimate brands. In fact, they want to pose as market breakers who simply want to rip you off. We are here to direct the spotlight on the symptoms that can reveal when an online casino leans toward problematic.
We want you to set yourself up for success by enjoying your experience without any issues and downward spirals that can lead to lost money and data breaches. Likewise, we will structure this article by asking some questions that should be an assessment test. We will try to tell you which situations represent red flags so you can know how to avoid them.
Does The Casino Have The Right Credentials?
This boils down to the things that you can check. The first one is the license, which is the certification that attests to a casino’s complete commitment to creating a proper online casino experience.
It reassures both the regulator and the player that you will encounter fair treatment, proper security measures, and possible dispute resolution if need be. However, know that the authority of these regulators can fluctuate quite heavily.
You have the bottom-dwellers like the Curaçao GCB and Anjouan licenses, the more respected MGA, and the top-tier local regulators like the UKGC. You can search for their licenses in the regulator’s database (registry) very easily and see if their showcased certificate is legit.
Does The Casino’s Reputation Match Its Credentials?
You have plenty of resources to check in this department. Whether you use betbrain or other specialty reviewers, as well as player opinion aggregators, you should be able to ascertain what other players feel like in this context.
Naturally, you shouldn’t take every statement at face value since there are unreasonable players who try to smear any website where they suffer heavy losses. Moreover, there is the possibility of repetitive and robotic 5-star reviews that are in stark contrast to other, more negative reviews.
If a casino showcases any tendency to pay for positive reviews, you should immediately avoid it. You can determine if such reviews are fake either by searching for an admission from a player who felt insulted by this proposition or by seeing unnatural content within these reviews.
Are The Payment Methods Safe And Sound?
If the payment methods are some services that you’ve barely heard of, they can either be dubious options or just regional payment processors. You’d have to do a bit of research in this type of context.
You should be a bit wary of hyper-crypto casinos because, in most cases, they want to cover their tracks using the anonymity of the blockchain. The more established these payment methods are, the safer you may feel since there is a paper trail in case something happens.
Do The Offers Sound Too Good To Be Legit?
Many cases of abuse and scams happen when we choose to ignore Murphy’s law. Immense bonus advantages and aggressive marketing are usually heralds of scams. A casino is rarely incentivized to give away huge swats of money because it makes no financial sense (i.e., no profit margin).
Moreover, the lack of wagering requirements and max cashout caps for immense bonuses is an automatic red flag. As much as they’d like to market their product, online casinos would rarely want themselves to hemorrhage money from bonus campaigns, especially if the bonus comes without a deposit.
Please look into the casino’s profile before you only go toward its bonuses. The rate of scams among internet users is really high, and this is a very easy way to fall into the same pitfall.
Is Customer Support Treating You Well?
There are a couple of scenarios in which you can start raising the red flags.
The first would be when the support operator uses dismissive, rude, or completely unprofessional language. It means that you’re dealing with a one-man operation that’s trying to use an online casino as a get-rich-quickly scheme.
The other would be if the answers feel extremely robotic (i.e., AI-generated) and try to circle you to kingdom come without giving you any answer. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the casino is a scam, but it does mean that its staff is either incompetent or unwilling to help you in case of issues and disputes.
Do You Receive Any Questionable Promotional Content From The Casino?
If your email is absolutely full of promotional content about every other thing, it may be an issue. If the casino continues to spew out its content even after you unsubscribe, it means that it doesn’t care, which is an absolute issue. Please consider the fact that regular, legit casinos respect your wishes when it comes to promotional content.
Does It Treat Responsible Gambling In A Serious Manner?
This argument is as simple as it gets. If the brand puts in the work and respects responsible gambling, as both morality and the license would require, you should have no issue in this department.
Please understand that responsible gambling is something you should always look for in an online casino with modern sensibilities.
Conclusion
We believe that you now have the main tools to have a savvy search when it comes to online casinos. As long as you choose to put awareness over promises, you should be able to spot red flags in an instant. However, remember to play responsibly, regardless of where you play!
